A forgotten and valuable chapter in the history of tobacco concerns its role as a botanical medicine. For three hundred years following its importation into Europe, tobacco came to be considered a universal remedy highly prescribed by physicians. In the early history of tobacco, the literature on its medicinal benefits was voluminous. Nonetheless, bitter opposition to its use for non-medicinal purposes began to arise. There was little doubt of its medicinal efficacy at first, but with time, as the concepts and practice of medicine changed, the tide of medical opinion turned against it. Medical support for the therapeutic use of tobacco reached its nadir during the mid-nineteenth century, when it was dropped from most medical pharmacoepiae. Medical opinion on the health hazards of recreational smoking required another 100 years to arrive at the contemporary opinion that cigarette smoking is the single most important preventable environmental factor contributing to illness, disability and death in the U. S.

烟草史上一本被遗忘且有价值的章节涉及其作为植物药的作用。烟草进口到欧洲后的三百年来，烟草被医生高度重视，被认为是一种普遍的疗法。在烟草的早期历史中，有关其医学益处的文献很多。尽管如此，人们开始强烈反对将其用于非医学目的。起初对其药效毫无疑问，但随着时间的流逝，随着医学观念和实践的改变，医学意见的潮流也与之相反。在19世纪中叶，从大多数医学药典中删除了对烟草进行治疗的医学支持，达到了最低点。